1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a guide rail assembly comprising a guide rail and carriages carrying hanging parts such as curtains, slats of blinds or the like and guided along the rail attached to a solid base such as a wall, a ceiling or the like. The carriages are jointly movable in both rail directions by means of a pull cord running along the rail.
Onto the carriages or travellers of such a guide or assembly rail are hung in particular strip-like slats, in order to form a slatted curtain, panel drapes or vertical blinds for windows, for separating or dividing up room areas, etc. For opening such a curtain the carriages that form a set or pack of slats are moved together at one rail end on one side of the curtain, whilst for a partial opening position or closed position of the curtain the carriages are moved along the rail in unitary spaced positions. By means of a known reversing or turning mechanism on the carriages, the slats can be brought into an angular, specifically a perpendicular, position relative to the curtain surface (open position) or a position parallel to the curtain surface with slightly overlapping slat edges (closed position). Apart from curtain slats, the guide rail carriages can also carry hanging elements such as decorative strips, pictures, design elements, electric light fittings, display parts for advertising purposes, etc., so that said hanging parts can be grouped on one side of the rail or can be arranged in distributed, spaced manner along the rail and about the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to produce a set or pack formation of a vertical blind with slats either at the right- or left-hand end of a guide rail, it is known (DE-OS 31 51 682) to connect a carriage arranged at each end of a guide rail by means of a screw either to a pull cord to form a pull carriage or to the rail to form a fixing element. Thus, a pack of slats can only be arranged in areas defined by the rail ends, and installation work using a screwdriver is required. After one of the carriages has been fixed to the rail, the pack of slats can only be drawn up in one direction. Thus, the known guide rail must be designed and fitted for the specific type of intended use right from the outset. For final installation the movement and/or pack areas desired for the slats must be known and measured. These areas are e.g. bound by the opening area of casements or by the size of window openings. As a result of the predetermined slat pack arrangement, it is also necessary to use a rail precisely adapted to the intended use and/or to provide a position of the pull cord pertaining to the specific requirements. Thus, the assembly or installation work is relatively time-consuming. When operating the known vertical blind, the user is bound by the pack position set up at one end of the guide rail, so that the slatted curtain cannot at all be adjusted o is not readily adjustable to instantaneously occurring and changing spatial circumstances, light conditions, glare and/or vision protection positions.
Another known guide rail (EP-A-O 166 625) is provided for operating at the same time a longer guide rail portion and a shorter guide rail portion of a two-part curtain. For this purpose a bulge is positioned on a pull or draw cord at a specific distance from a pull carriage, so that only after covering that predetermined distance does the bulge reach the pull carriage and move it in one direction. In order to bring curtain portions with different guide rail lengths against one another in the closed position, according to another embodiment disclosed by EP-A-O 166 625, fixing parts of a pull carriage or bulge parts are arranged in frictional or sliding engagement with a pull cord and movable against the latter. It is also known from EP-A-O 166 625 to arrange a pull cord bulge between the walls of a pull carriage, so that in this way the cord is firmly and durably connected to the carriage.
Another known vertical slatted curtain (WO-A-8704057) comprises a guide rail with slides guided along the same. The slides are fixed to an elastic cord, so that when the curtain is open the slides are closely juxtaposed in a lateral pack, whilst being movable out of the pack position at identical and uniformly enlargeable spacings.
With the known vertical slatted curtains according to EP-A-O 166 625 and WO-A-8704057 the packs of slats are always provided in an end region of a guide rail and the slides or carriages of each set are only moved apart in one closing direction. For each particular purpose a specially designed rail and therefore specially related measuring and installation work are required. The user is bound by the pack position installed once and for all. The pack areas and the movement area of the slat slides or carriages of a mounted guide rail cannot be adapted to modified wishes and/or use situations, or alternatively this requires extensive reequipping and installation work.
3. Objects of the Invention
A major object of the invention is to provide a guide rail for hanging parts, which is of relatively simple construction and can be easily installed. Another essential object of the invention lies in that hanging part carriages or travellers guided by the rail can be moved, grouped and/or positioned optionally within desired sections of the rail in a controlled manner by operating pull cord.